The present invention relates to a domestic appliance, comprising an interior which can be illuminated with a light source and is surrounded by walls and a door, with the door having at least one glass surface.
Conventional domestic refrigerators are generally illuminated inside by an incandescent bulb, which is located in a transparent or translucent bulb housing in the interior of the refrigerator. The light source is activated by a suitable electromechanical switching device on the door opening system of the refrigerator. Such light sources tend, depending on the quantity of chilled goods filling the refrigerator, only to provide poor or uneven illumination, due to their position within the refrigerator.
More even illumination can be achieved by using a number of light sources, which is however not always desirable against a background of energy-efficient refrigerators, since each additional incandescent bulb represents a further heat source. Using a number of incandescent bulbs leads to an increase in heat radiation and an unwanted temperature rise within the refrigerator, which has to be compensated for by an increased cooling effect.
It has proven that in unfavorable ambient light conditions, in particular with dark spatial or room illumination, even if the interior illumination of the domestic appliance is even, the objects and goods in the interior cannot always be clearly identified, as they appear silhouetted due to illumination from behind or from the side. Low-contrast labels on the goods cannot be easily identified in a refrigerator for example, so that the goods have to be picked up and taken out of the refrigerator in order to be able to read the labels in better light conditions.